


Using Your Stomach

by animenutcase



Series: The Misadventures of the Family Known As The Shepherds [6]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-01
Updated: 2014-06-01
Packaged: 2018-02-03 01:27:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1726163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animenutcase/pseuds/animenutcase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stahl finds his Daughter-In-Law trying to cook and goes about averting a food crisis.</p><p>(Companion to Using Your Head)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Using Your Stomach

Sully was very good at teasing Stahl. She had been ever since their training days. Stahl knew that there was never anything malicious behind it. At most, it was good-natured ribbing or trying to convince Stahl to push himself further. 

People had seemed baffled when they told them they weren’t a couple. Several of them tried to hook them up, and a few of them kept trying even after Stahl and Miriel got married. It wasn’t until Henry and Sully’s wedding that people took a hint.

The first time Stahl saw his future son, it was in the desert. He’d noted that the boy looked a lot like Miriel, and when he walked up to speak to Miriel, he’d suspected he knew why. Sure enough, Miriel brought Laurent to him and explained that this boy was potentially their future son, though there wasn’t any 100% irrefutable proof.

Sully had looked him over and said he was lucky to have such a good-looking son.

He was curious when Sully told him she was marrying Henry, but she simply shrugged and said that stranger combinations had happened within the Shepherds. He had to admit she had a point.

It was shortly after that that they met Sully’s daughter, Kjelle.

She was strong-willed and determined, just like her mother. She was disciplined, blunt, and apparently lacking in the culinary arts, just like her mother. Stahl wouldn’t have been surprised if she found a Dark Mage and decided to get hitched, just like her mother.

So when Kjelle asked for his and Miriel’s permission to marry his son, he was surprised, and he suspected that Sully felt the same way.

He thought it was rather funny that their children had fallen in love, but he was curious as to how they were getting along. One afternoon, he looked for Kjelle and found her in the kitchen.

That was an immediate red flag, considering what had happened the last time she cooked for the army.

“It’s not for the army.” were the first words out of her mouth when she spotted him. “It’s… for Laurent.”

Ah. That explained it. When they’d first gotten married, Sully had tried to make a special meal for Henry, too. Of course, she nearly killed him when she did, and the meal radiated an aura so malevolent that Kellam’s daughter thought it was one of her mother’s curses.

Henry _did_ eat the entire thing, though, which Stahl had to admit was pretty impressive.

It was a kind gesture, but if it made Laurent sick, it would seem counterproductive.

“Laurent’s the one who cooks when it’s just the two of us.” Kjelle explained. “I suspect it’s because of what happened when I was on cooking duty.”

Yes, Stahl remembered the incident very clearly, as much as he didn’t want to.

“It’s really stupid.” Kjelle continued. “Worrying about whether or not I can cook a good meal is absurd. I haven’t worried about this sort of thing in years.”  
“I wouldn’t say that not being able to cook isn’t something worth worrying about.” Stahl shook his head. “Cooking is an important skill, and I think it’s important that men and women both know how to do it.”

Kjelle stared at him for a moment before her face turned red and she asked him to help her with the meal.

“You were like this in the future, too.” She said as Stahl began chopping the carrots.  
“Oh?” Stahl raised a curious eyebrow.

“You were always looking after me.” Kjelle chuckled. “Sometimes it was like I had two fathers instead of one.”  
“Heh. Is that so?” Stahl laughed.  
“Your wife looked after me, too, in her own way. She was actually the one who taught me how to read.”  
“Did she really?”  
“Yes.” Kjelle nodded. “Obviously, my parents tried to do so themselves, but Mother has never exactly had that flair for reading, and she didn’t really want me reading any of Father’s books.”  
“I’ve glanced at some of Henry’s books.” Stahl agreed. “They’re… interesting.”

Kjelle fell silent for a moment.

“It wasn’t really the same when you died.” She said quietly. “Everyone took it pretty hard. Your wife cried, Laurent cried, Mother cried, _I_ cried… Of course, Mother denied she was crying even when people could see very clearly that she was.”  
“Heh. That sounds like Sully.”

Kjelle pause again before she decided to continue.

“You had gone into battle one day. Your armor hadn’t been maintained properly, so you’d been wounded by a spear. Admittedly, it had just been a small wound, but within a few days, it had gotten infected.” She said slowly, uncomfortably. “The timeline we came from was… grim. You could never really let your guard down.”

Stahl watched Kjelle put the seasoning in the pot.

“Mother died not long after that.” Kjelle explained. “Then Aunt Miriel just sort of… vanished. All they could recover was her hat and her ring.”

Kjelle shuddered.

“Of course, the soldiers who brought it back said that they found it just a few feet away from a huge puddle of blood, so maybe it’s for the best that we don’t know what happened exactly.”

Stahl’s face paled. Bad future or not, hearing that your wife likely met a horrific, violent end was rather unpleasant.

“Father wanted to adopt Laurent after that.” Kjelle continued. “Mother and Father had asked you and Miriel to look after me if anything happened to them, and they made the same promise to you.”  
“Henry… “wanted” to adopt Laurent?” Stahl asked quietly, understanding where this was going.

“Laurent didn’t want Father looking after him.” Kjelle explained as she picked up the ladle to stir, only for Stahl to stop her and say that she needed to wait for it to boil first. “He was certain that his mother was alive and out there somewhere. Besides, he was the second oldest of the children. He didn’t _need_ anyone looking after him.”

Kjelle chuckled bitterly.

“He still cried like a baby when Father died.”

“You kids have been through a lot.”  
“Yeah, but…” Kjelle wiped her eyes. “We managed to make it to the past. Once we find the others, we’ll be able to crush the fell dragon once and for all.”  
“I’m sure we will.” Stahl smiled back. “For now, though, let’s make sure this meal turns out good, shall we?”

In the end, they realized that they’d made too much for just Kjelle and Laurent, so they decided to have a family dinner with the six of them. The meal… wasn’t quite as good as Kjelle had hoped, but Laurent ate the whole thing, and Sully admitted that it was better than what she could have made.

Kjelle spent the rest of the day with a warm feeling in her belly, and she knew that it wasn’t because of the food.


End file.
